1994 Ponzi Reserve Pinot Noir > Wine Forums - THE Wine Forum - On VinoCellar.com

Home

Help

Friday, September 05, 2008

You are here : Wine Forums

VinoCellar.com Wine Forums

Subject: 1994 Ponzi Reserve Pinot Noir

You are not authorized to post a reply.

Author

Messages

ChangeMe

Master of Wine
Posts:11169

05/02/2003 4:10 AM
Tasted at 1/2 hour after decanting: The wine had a floral nose of cherries and violets. On the palate the flavors of cherries and berries predominated, balanced by ample tannins. It doesn't have the expansiveness of CA PN, but it's fine in its own more powerful right, though it was not overpowering the way some OR PNs can be. I believe it's still improving. 90. At 1 hour: The wine smoothed out a lot and possessed an elegance not commonly found in OR PN. 92 I enjoyed this more than any other OR PN I've had, probably because age had mellowed the wine to the point of fine balance. My knock on OR PN is that I believe the winemakers try to make a Cabernet out of the PN grape, rather than letting the true beauty of PN shine through. This wine is a step in the right direction as far as I'm concerned.

Seaquam

Barrel Filler
Posts:1141

05/02/2003 5:36 PM
The best Oregon Pinots I've had have come from Ponzi and Panther Creek before Ken Wright left. We rarely see Ponzi Reserves in Vancouver any more, and last couple of times I was in Seattle, I looked but couldn't find any either. Just for comparison, here's a note on the '91 Ponzi Res. from July '99: '91 Ponzi Reserve: a bit too cold coming right out of the cellar, showed no nose at first, but opened up beautifully over 1 hour. Very dark, deep ruby color (hard to believe this is 8 years old; my experience with OR pinots is that the color begins to fade after app. 5 yrs., but not this one); once the nose opened, it showed cherry, raspberry, grilled meat, anise, cedar; big mouthfilling fruit, blackberries & cherries, earth, anise, sage, cola; long finish. Lots of sediment; clearly, not filtered. A beautiful wine, and would not be out of place among premier cru (and even some grand crus) Burgundies. This wine just got better and better over 1 1/2 hours; we were sorry to finish this one. 92-3 points. That's the best Oregon Pinot I've had to date, although I drank 6 bottles of '85 Amity Reserve and couple were excellent (bottle variation was excessive on these) and aged well, until 1995.

ChangeMe

Master of Wine
Posts:11169

05/02/2003 6:08 PM
Sounds very similar to my experience with the '94. I notice you felt the '91 was the best OR PN you'd had and I feel the same way about the '94. I have one bottle left and I intend to hold it for at least two more years.

ChangeMe

Master of Wine
Posts:11169

07/13/2004 3:13 AM
I wish I had read the previous post before opening this bottle. I'd have waited another year or more. We had our final bottle of this wine tonight. Immediately after decanting, the wine was rough, and we waited an hour to take notes. The color was a medium purple with no browning. It had a brilliant cherry nose and flavor to match. I don't believe it was fully developed yet as it kept getting better to the last sip. It was somewhat expansive, but I'd give it another 2 or 3 years, if I had any left. me 92. My wife 93.

Tom Mortimer User is Offline

Grape Destemmer
Posts:72

08/23/2004 4:16 AM
If you like the '94, be on the lookout for the '02 (not yet released). At IPNC it was one of the top 3 on my list, possibly #1. Very nice stuff.

ChangeMe

Master of Wine
Posts:11169

08/23/2004 12:14 PM
Will do. I have a lot of '02 OR PNs I want to buy.

You are not authorized to post a reply.